(CNN) - While investigators focus on developments leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing, gun rights advocates zeroed in on the tense days after the deadly attack and the frantic manhunt for one of the suspects.
National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said residents were "imprisoned" in their homes with no means to protect themselves while police searched for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
His capture four days after the April 15 bombing was preceded by a wild Boston-area gun battle and chase during which his older brother and second suspect, Tamerlan, was killed.
A subsequent law enforcement dragnet paralyzed the city and close-in suburbs as the hunt for the surviving Tsarnev, considered armed and extremely dangerous, intensified and residents were warned to stay indoors.
"How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?" LaPierre asked in a speech at the NRA's convention in Houston Saturday.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured hiding in a boat in Watertown, Massachusetts.
"Boston proves it. When brave law enforcement officers did their job in that city so courageously, good guys with guns stopped terrorists with guns," he said.
The NRA is fighting efforts in Congress to expand background checks and pass other gun control measures prompted by the Newtown school massacre last December.